Akhmed
Zakayev was born April 1956 in Kazakhstan. He first
achieved stardom as an actor at the Grozny theater.
In 1990, after Chechnya seceded from Russia, he was
appointed its Minister of Culture. After Russia re-invaded
Chechnya, Zakayev first fought with the rebels and then
went into exile in Denmark, where he was arrested on
a Russian warrant. He then went to Britain, where he
received political asylum. He met Litvinenko in London
in the Spring of 2002. In his deposition, he said “we
kept in constant contact and cooperated together. I
was also the representative of the government commission
for the investigation of war crimes committed on the
territory of Chechnya by the Russian occupying troops.
And Alexander Litvinenko was inducted by me into that
commission... With the help of Alexander Litvinenko
we identified the people directly in charge of the operations
in the Chechen Republic.” On November 1st, just
before his lunch with Scaramella. Litvinenko called
Zakayev, and arranged for him to pick him later that
afternoon at Boris Berezovsky's Mayfair office. Zakayev
then drove him home.